Page 22 of Made Up for Love
“In the kitchen.”
“Right, it needs to be put on display.” Megan fussed about, assembling the cake stand Lydia had found online, at the last moment. “Oh, and I just wanted to say that this stand is gorgeous. I don’t know where you got it from, but it’s perfect.”
Lydia almost stopped in her tracks. Megan was actually giving her a compliment. “Sorry, what did you say?”
“I said it’s perfect,” Megan responded without thinking. She looked up from her task and met Lydia’s gaze, a smile forming on her lips. “I know I give you a hard time sometimes.”
“Only sometimes?” Lydia felt her own mouth twitching.
Her sister rolled her eyes. “It’s for your own good.”
As she walked towards the kitchen to find the cake, Lydia giggled to herself. She liked this version of Megan and hoped it would last longer than the Christmas period, before she turned into Bridezilla again. That was a scary sight.
Jacinta was in the kitchen, about to pop a prawn canapé into her mouth.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Damn, rumbled.”
“You’ve just had food poisoning. Do you think that eating a prawn that’s been transported from someone’s house and has been sitting, uncovered, in a village-hall kitchen is the best thing for you to do?”
“It got you a gig with Sadie Starr.” Jacinta raised her eyebrows, then cast a glance at the snack. “You might be right though. I do actually want to see Christmas Day, not have my head stuck down the toilet.” She wrinkled her nose and tossed the offending item into the nearest bin. “It almost got you a boyfriend too. Have you heard anything from Joel?”
Lydia shook her head, the good mood, induced by Megan being nice to her, beginning to dissipate. “I don’t know if I should contact him and tell him I can pay him back or wait until after Christmas.”
“I guess if you contacted him today, then it’s over and done with and you won’t be second guessing what’s going to happen with the two of you during the Queen’s speech.”
“True.” She honestly didn’t know what to do. They had really clicked and got on well. Then there was that kiss. After that, she didn’t know what had changed his mind for him to storm off like he did. Maybe it had been about the money, or maybe she was just overthinking it. “I’ll do it once we’ve finished organising everything here.”
The cake box was sitting on the side and Lydia peeked inside. It was a replica of her parents’ wedding cake, updated with pearl decorations.
“It’s absolutely exquisite, isn’t it?” Megan appeared behind her. “I want something similar for mine—it’s timeless.” She paused. “Lyds, I wanted to ask you something.”
Lydia tensed. She wondered what she hadn’t managed to finish. “Sure, what?”
Her sister shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. “I haven’t asked you before, because I wasn’t certain you’d say yes, and we haven’t discussed it before, but I didn’t want you to think I didn’t want you…” Megan was rambling, which was most unlike her.
“You’re beginning to worry me, Megs, what is it?”
“Would you be my maid of honour?” she finally managed.
“Omigodareyouserious?” Lydia squealed. Never in a million years would she imagine that Megan would ask her that, despite being family. She already knew her sister had a small army of friends, who would likely be part of the bridal party, and had assumed one of them would take the coveted role. She launched herself at her sister and threw her arms around her. “Yes! Of course, I would be honoured to.”
Megan extricated herself from Lydia’s hold. “It looks like things are going well for you career-wise.” She nodded in Jacinta’s direction. “Seems like this one being ill could have been the best thing to happen to you. So, I thought you deserved a bit more good news.” She paused. “Even if things with the guy you just met didn’t work out.”
“You told her?” Lydia threw an accusatory glance in Jacinta’s direction, who shrugged in response.
“Sorry, I didn’t know it was a secret.”
“It would have been such a romantic story if you had got together.” Megan sighed. “He rescues you from sleeping on the airport floor, takes you shopping, buys you dinner…”
“Then it all turned to crap on the flight home.” Lydia cut her sister off mid-sentence. The joy she’d felt at being asked to be Megan’s maid of honour was obliterated by her bringing up Joel. Maybe Jacinta was right, she needed to contact him today and then, in the immortal words of Elsa, let it go. She looked around for her bag to get her phone.
“People are starting to arrive.” Clive Hendrick, Lydia and Megan’s father stuck his head into the kitchen. “Are you going to bring the cake out now?”
“Of course, Daddy, we’ll be right there.” Megan beamed at him. “Come on, sis. Let’s go join the party.”
Several hours later, Lydia’s cheeks ached from smiling at everyone and updating the many relatives and friends of her parents on her life. She’d answered questions about her job and what it was like to work with Sadie Starr. She’d fielded the usual inquisition about her love life and why there wasn’t anyone at the party with her. If Jacinta hadn’t been there to chime in, with some hilarious anecdotes, about some of the people she’d done make-up for, then she might have screamed. She stood by the cake table, taking a breather.
